The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-10-18
An Overturned Stove Sets Fire
to the Wreck and Causes
Loss of Life.
Unseen Signals-A Broken In.
gine-Details of the Wreck
An Officers Statement.

WIKI all tne horror Oh DARK nlSnt, loss o.
many lives and utter impossibility of Civ
ing due attention to those who were In
iured. Erie Express No. IL pulled ont o.
the Polk Street Depot, Chicago, on th.
Chicago and Atlantic road, at 7:45 o'elocb
last evening. Conductor Parks was in
charge, and Engineer Conner and Fireman
Willets were in the loeomatiye. The train
was made up of two Pullman sleepeTs, 9
day coach and fruit car, and baggage
ear. The night was dark and misty, and
the rails were slippery. The train had
been ont of Chicago but few moment.
when Engineer Conner discovered that his
engine had broken her eccentric strap. As
this mishap is of frequent occurrence, the
conductor continued on his trip by work.
ing one side of his locomotive. The mishsl
lessened the speed of the train to such an
extent that when it swept by Boone Grove,
dismal prairie station FIVE miles west OF
this place, it was two hours late. While
the crippled passenger train was running
through this bleak strip of country, q
heavy refrigerator train, with tons of fresh
meat packed in its long line of cars, was
laundering along at a great speed few
miles behind.
DIsREGARDED WARNING.
John Dorsey was the engineer of the
freight train, aud it is said had orders to
look out for the passenger train. After
passing Boone Grove Engineer Conner
stopped his train at a water tank two and
one half miles west of the village, or mid
way between here and Boone Grove. As
soon as he had leaped from his engine he
threw up the distant semaphore lamp, near
1y half mile in his rear. This was to
warn the freight that the passenger had stop
ped for water. He had not been at the tank
more than two minutes when he heard the
freight laundering behind. The grade at
this point is very steep, and with slippery
rails heavy train runs at furious rate
1t was too late to warn the train, which
was coming at tremendous speed. Engi-
neer Dorsey had failed to see the big red
semaphore light, and his locomotive tore
through the mist and fog until it crashed
into the rear Pullman coach.
Before the collision occurred Dorsey
and his fireman san the lamps burning on
the doomed express train, but it was too
late to avert the disaster. The two men
leaped from their cab and then the crash
came. The engine of the freight plunged
50 far into the rear Pullman that its upper
works dropped of in the center Of the
coach, which was reduced to splinters, The
platforms of every car we're torn away, and
thus wrecked. The ends of each coach
were broken like egg-shells. The cars of
the freight train were hurled in every d.
reetion. The upper works of tbs engine
we're torn away, the tender thrown across
the track, and piled up for twenty rods
about the prairie were hundreds Of pounds
of meat.
THE WRECK on FIRE.
There were Baker improved heaters on
the express train, but Notwithstanding this
supposed improvement over the deadly
stove, the Goals in the heater quickly set
FIRE to the upholstery of the rear Pullman,
and in five minutes a fame, which at first
was scarcely larger than ribbon, spread
into a brisk blaze and soon enveioped the
shattered cosches and their screaming oc-
cupants. The light from the fire illumi-
mated the sky for miles around, and start
led the farmers who had not yet gone TO
bed. Through the rain and mud the res
cuers came. Meantime the crews of both
trains, who had escaped with but slight in
iuries, were hard at work dragging the
helpless passengers FROM their blazing pris-
ons. Nearly all were found to have been
hurled to the front ends of the coaches,
where they were pushed and crushed by
the heavy timbers and iron of the plat |
forms.
One man, the head of Bohemian fami- |
", lay between the baggage and the day |
coach. A brake rod had been driven |
through his neck, and thus impaled he per-
ished, while his family lay writhing. in |
frightful agony beside him. The FIRE burn
ed with the appalling rapidity of all rail- |
road fires. Reinforced by the farmers and |
their sturdy boys, the trainmen set about |
their work with a will. There was water |
close at hand, and pailful after pailful was |
dashed into the cracking mass.
The railroad officials claim that there
were but twenty passengers on the train,
but the men who stood about the wreck de. |
clared that the screams and appeals for
mercy came from double that number of |
human beings. The Pullmans, although |
the first to receive the shock, did not leave
the track, but burned where they stood. So
far as known, not a life was lost in these
coaches, There were but few persons in
the berths, and, although all were hurled
one upon the other, all escaped through the
windows before the flames burst through
the flooring.
sUPT. PARSONS STATEMENT.
Supt. Parsons, of the Chicago and At
lantic, was seen late in the afternoon
gioomily pacing the station platform. He
was extremely taciturn, and was very sure
that no bodies could be found under the
wreck. Only nine persons had beed killed,
he declared, and not more than eleven or
twelve hurt, none of the latter seriously.
He admitted that no fsgmen had been
sent back from the passenger train when a
stop was made. Mr.. Parsons said the
train men depended upon semsphore
light fully 1000 feet In the rear of where
the stop was made. The conductor of the
train had pulled the cord for this light
when he stepped from his train. This